I guess that fits here nicely, but last week my wife and I decided to visit the OPERA
A colleague's husband had fallen ill, and they had some tickets for "The Magic Flute" the same day at the Hannover Opera house, so she was looking to sell the tickets as they could not go themselves.
It was very nice, especially as my wife had never before been to see an opera. During my formative years in Vienna, Austria, of course, it had been expected of a somehow cultured person to attend an opera now and then, but I also had not been to the opera for a long time, preferring classical concerts instead.
What surprised me was the amount of racism and misogyny present in the piece - of course, as the opera had been written 225 years ago, it is not up to today's standards, and I also understand that the director can not simply change the lines and the story, still, it was surprising to encounter it again (even more so as the program booklet illustrated that Mozart supposedly was a very progressive person - for his time - and is believed to have been trying to get women admitted to freemason groups).
One thing connected to that which I did not like at all was the director's decision to depict one of the main figures, the "Queen of the Night", as a hysterical woman (hard to describe it anyhow different). This left a bad aftertaste in my mouth and made an otherwise pleasant experience less than perfect.
Other than that ... it was fun - now, while there is IMO no other way to describe opera than as "objectively boring" if you compare it to, say a movie, and I knew basically what was going to happen in every scene (which is a requirement, as you typically can not understand what the singers are singing, even if you understand the language), I was still sitting there with a stupid blissful grin on my face for most of the time, enjoying the impression and the music.
I'll have to find other means....
